# Tuya's Marriage (图雅的婚事)
**Tuya's Marriage** (图雅的婚事, Túyǎ de hūnshì) is a 2006 Chinese drama film directed by Wang Quan'an, set on the desertifying grasslands of [Inner Mongolia](https://www.edgepedia.org/inner-mongolia), about a shepherdess who divorces her paralyzed husband so that she can remarry on the condition that her new husband help her care for the old one. It won the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear), the festival's top prize, at the 57th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) in 2007, along with the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[1](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/11/3235-tuyas-marriage)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Wang Quan'an, co-written with Lu Wei; produced by Yan Ju Gang[2](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/tuyas-marriage/) |
| Cast | Yu Nan as Tuya; Bater, Sen'ge, Baolier, and Zhaya, mostly local non-professional actors[3](https://ras-china.org/events-archive/re-screening-tuyas-marriage-wang-quanan) |
| Awards | Golden Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, 57th Berlinale, 2007[1](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/11/3235-tuyas-marriage) |
| Production and release | Produced 2006 in China; released in China on April 13, 2007; Mandarin dialogue[4](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Basis | Adapted from a real "marry a husband to support the husband" case, originally reported from rural Gansu and relocated to the Mongolian steppe[4](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Budget | About 5 million yuan, in line with Wang's earlier low-budget art films[5](https://old.lifeweek.com.cn/2007/0319/17980.shtml) |
| Running time | Reported as 96 minutes by festival and distributor materials; other listings give 86 or 95 minutes[2](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/tuyas-marriage/) • [6](https://asianwiki.com/index.php?title=Tuya%27s_Marriage) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Tuya is a strong-willed Mongolian shepherdess supporting her family on the arid Inner Mongolian steppe. Her husband Bater lost the use of his legs while drilling wells for water, and with two children and a flock of about one hundred sheep, the physical burden of the household falls entirely on her. Long labor damages her lumbar spine, and she faces the risk of paralysis herself.[6](https://asianwiki.com/index.php?title=Tuya%27s_Marriage) • [7](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/tuyas-marriage/2030285736/)
Bater, feeling he has become a burden, proposes divorce, and Tuya reluctantly agrees on one condition: any new husband must accept Bater as part of the family and help support him, the children, and the pastureland.[7](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/tuyas-marriage/2030285736/) Suitors appear, but most balk at the arrangement. One who accepts is Baolier, a former schoolmate who has grown rich in the oil industry; he places Bater in a state-run nursing facility in town, but Bater, separated from Tuya and the children, attempts suicide by slashing his wrists, and Baolier's promises go unfulfilled.[6](https://asianwiki.com/index.php?title=Tuya%27s_Marriage) • [8](https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/512d04341c7d76e04600268d-tuya-s-marriage) Tuya's neighbor Sen'ge, an unhappily married herder who has repeatedly helped the family, eventually proposes; the film opens and closes at their wedding, where fights break out among the adults and children, since the marriage leaves one woman with two husbands.[9](https://ent.sina.cn/film/chinese/2007-04-13/detail-iavxeafr8807303.d.html)
## Production
**Origins.** Screenwriter Lu Wei, whose credits include *Farewell My Concubine* and *To Live*, said he was struck in 2004 by a television documentary account of a "marry a husband to support the husband" (招夫养夫) case in rural China, and wrote the script at speed in 2005; the story was transplanted from its original setting to the Mongolian steppe. Baidu Baike places the original case in Gansu, while Lu Wei's own account describes one from rural Sichuan.[10](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-04-09/16581512169.html) • [4](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink) Wang Quan'an, born in 1965 in Yan'an and a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, said he made the film to record a way of life he saw disappearing: aggressive industrial expansion was turning pastures into desert, and local authorities were pressuring Mongolian herders to leave the grasslands. He filmed in the region where his mother was born.[1](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/11/3235-tuyas-marriage)
**Casting and crew.** In a style associated with China's Sixth Generation (movement of young post-1990 mainland [Chinese art](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-art) filmmakers) directors, the film uses local non-professional actors in principal roles: the herders Bater, Sen'ge, and Zhaya play characters bearing their own names, as does Baolier, the figure of industrial wealth. The exception is [Yu Nan](https://www.edgepedia.org/yu-nan), a professional actress born in 1978 and a Beijing Film Academy acting graduate, who had played leads in Wang's two earlier features, *Lunar Eclipse* (1999) and *The Story of Ermei* (2004).[3](https://ras-china.org/events-archive/re-screening-tuyas-marriage-wang-quanan) [Cinematography](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinematography) was by the German documentary cameraman Lutz Reitemeier, whose observational style was noted by critics as avoiding condescending framing of the herders' lives.[1](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/11/3235-tuyas-marriage) • [11](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/pots/POTS.466.pdf) Yu Nan spent five months in Inner Mongolia before shooting, learning to ride camels and horses, herd sheep, and live with local herders; the opening shot, in which she commands a camel to kneel and dismount, took ten days to capture.[4](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Reception and awards
At the 57th Berlinale, held February 8 to 18, 2007, the film won the Golden Bear from a jury of seven, with five votes in the final round; juror Shi Nansheng, the jury's sole Chinese member, reported that it had no real competitor in the final vote, and that festival rules barred the film from also taking the Best Actress Silver Bear for Yu Nan.[12](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-02-20/09501455893.html) • [13](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-02-27/14551461042.html) It was the third Golden Bear for a mainland Chinese film, after [Zhang Yimou](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-yimou)'s *Red Sorghum* (1988) and Xie Fei's *Woman Sesame Oil Maker* (1993), and followed [Jia Zhangke](https://www.edgepedia.org/jia-zhangke)'s Golden Lion for *[Still Life](https://www.edgepedia.org/still-life-2006-film)* at Venice in 2006, a run that commentators read as international recognition of the Sixth Generation.[14](https://news.sohu.com/20070219/n248299310.shtml) • [12](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-02-20/09501455893.html)
Yu Nan went on to win the Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the 43rd Chicago International Film Festival in 2007, where the film also took a Special Jury Prize for Wang, and Best Actress at the Carthage Film Festival in Tunis. In 2008 the film won Best Film and Yu Nan Best Actress at the Chinese Film Media Awards.[15](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949564/awards/) • [16](https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.middlebury.edu/dist/d/2692/files/2013/08/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B%E3%80%8B%E8%AF%BE%E5%A0%82%E8%AE%A8%E8%AE%BA.pdf) Critics abroad responded to the same qualities: Time Out's Geoff Andrew described a blend of documentary-style realism with genre pacing that succeeds both as a fable about rapid modernization and as tough, unsentimental drama.[17](https://www.timeout.com/movies/tuyas-marriage)
## Themes
The film's central arrangement, in which a wife remarries on the condition that the new husband help support the former one, raises the question of whether a marriage can carry such a condition, and Chinese commentary at the time noted that the film's harsh survival setting shields the choice from easy moral judgment.[18](https://ent.sina.com.cn/r/m/2007-04-15/01381519427.html) Academic readings have placed the three male figures, the paralyzed traditionalist Bater, the oil-rich modernizer Baolier, and the neighbor Sen'ge who combines herding life with trucks and machinery, as the choices facing Tuya between tradition, modernity, and a fusion of the two, against a backdrop in which industrial development has made the grassland itself unusable for herding.[19](https://cohd.cau.edu.cn/module/download/downfile.jsp?classid=0&filename=1606131848475857340.pdf) One study in *Asian Cinema* reads the film as audiovisual ecofeminism, arguing that Tuya's overworked body mirrors the overused land.[20](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.19.2.195_1)
## References
1. [Tuya's Marriage, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival programme](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/11/3235-tuyas-marriage)
2. [Tuya's Marriage, Music Box Films](https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/tuyas-marriage/)
3. [Re-screening of Tuya's Marriage by Wang Quan'An, Royal Asiatic Society China in Shanghai](https://ras-china.org/events-archive/re-screening-tuyas-marriage-wang-quanan)
4. [图雅的婚事, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
5. [王全安：做电影应该自律, 三联生活周刊 (2007)](https://old.lifeweek.com.cn/2007/0319/17980.shtml)
6. [Tuya's Marriage, AsianWiki](https://asianwiki.com/index.php?title=Tuya%27s_Marriage)
7. [Tuya's Marriage, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/tuyas-marriage/2030285736/)
8. [Tuya's Marriage, 2007 Tribeca Festival](https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/512d04341c7d76e04600268d-tuya-s-marriage)
9. ["柏林金熊"成色几何 细品《图雅的婚事》, 新浪 (2007)](https://ent.sina.cn/film/chinese/2007-04-13/detail-iavxeafr8807303.d.html)
10. [《图雅》编剧芦苇：手握《赤壁》和《白鹿原》, 新浪 (2007)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-04-09/16581512169.html)
11. [POTS 復刊466號 (2007)](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/p-library/books/pots/POTS.466.pdf)
12. [专访《图雅》导演王全安 得到金熊奖很坦然, 新浪 (2007)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-02-20/09501455893.html)
13. [王全安携《图雅的婚事》做客"先锋光芒", 新浪 (2007)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2007-02-27/14551461042.html)
14. [《图雅的婚事》捕获金熊, 京华时报 via 搜狐 (2007)](https://news.sohu.com/20070219/n248299310.shtml)
15. [Tuya's Marriage (2006) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949564/awards/)
16. [《图雅的婚事》课堂讨论, Middlebury College course materials](https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.middlebury.edu/dist/d/2692/files/2013/08/%E5%9B%BE%E9%9B%85%E7%9A%84%E5%A9%9A%E4%BA%8B%E3%80%8B%E8%AF%BE%E5%A0%82%E8%AE%A8%E8%AE%BA.pdf)
17. [Tuya's Marriage review, Time Out (Geoff Andrew, 2007)](https://www.timeout.com/movies/tuyas-marriage)
18. [京华时报：《图雅的婚事》绕着指责走, 新浪 (2007)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/r/m/2007-04-15/01381519427.html)
19. [王美玉、李焕征：影视作品中的文化意象表征解析——以《图雅的婚事》为例, 安徽文学 (2013)](https://cohd.cau.edu.cn/module/download/downfile.jsp?classid=0&filename=1606131848475857340.pdf)
20. [Ya-chen Chen, "Mother Earth Tuya's Marriage," Asian Cinema 19.2 (2008)](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.19.2.195_1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Romantic drama films 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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